On 22 August 1642, King Charles I raised the royal battle standard over Nottingham Castle. This was the King's declaration of war against Parliament and a call-to-arms to all loyal subjects. Royalists rallied from Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Lincolnshire; the princes Rupert and Maurice and other European military experts had already arrived from the continent with men and munitions, but the Royalist army was not yet strong enough to give battle. After seizing the weapons of the Nottinghamshire Trained Bands, King Charles set out to raise recruits from Cheshire and the Welsh Marches. On 20 September, the King's men occupied Shrewsbury, then Chester on the 23rd. Although support was less wholehearted than expected, the King had succeeded in raising 15 regiments of foot, 8 of horse and a regiment of dragoons by the beginning of October 1642.
Parliament's army was initially raised from volunteers in London and Essex and financed by City merchants. It was commanded by Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, who marched from London on 9 September and gathered his forces at Northampton. The Parliamentarian force comprised 20 regiments of foot, 6 of horse, a regiment of dragoons and Essex's own cuirassier lifeguard regiment. Essex intended to march against the King at Nottingham, but learning that Charles had withdrawn to the Welsh border, he marched for Worcester on 19 September. Both sides believed that the quarrel between King and Parliament would be decided by a single pitched battle.
Powick Bridge, Worcester, 23 September 1642
On 10 September, Sir John Byron left Oxford with a force of 150 dragoons and a large convoy of money and plate, donated by the university for the King's cause. Several days later, Byron's treasure convoy arrived at Worcester where he was joined by Prince Rupert with 1,000 horse.
Meanwhile, the Earl of Essex marched from Northampton on 19 September, making for Worcester via Coventry and Warwick. Realising that Worcester was indefensible against Essex's army, Byron left with the convoy to join the King while Rupert's cavalry stayed behind to cover his withdrawal.
At dawn on 23 September, Essex's advance guard of about 1,000 horse and dragoons commanded by Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes approached Worcester. Fiennes was accompanied by Colonel John Brown, a Scottish professional, who acted as his military adviser. Prince Rupert's troops were resting in fields a mile-and-a-half south of the city. As the Parliamentarians crossed the River Teme at Powick Bridge, Rupert's sentries opened fire on them. Alerted to the presence of the enemy, Rupert immediately led a cavalry charge before the surprised Parliamentarians could organise their deployment. Fiennes gallantly attempted to make a stand, but the Parliamentarians were driven back across the bridge in disarray, leaving about 150 dead. Although it was a relatively minor skirmish, Powick Bridge was the first significant action of the English Civil War and helped establish Rupert's reputation as an invincible cavalry commander.
The following day, the Earl of Essex arrived at Worcester with his main force. The mayor of Worcester was placed under arrest and Parliamentarian soldiers looted Worcester Cathedral — but the action at Powick Bridge had secured the Oxford treasure convoy for the King.
Edgehill, Warwickshire, 23 October 1642
On 12 October 1642, King Charles left Shrewsbury with his army, intending to march on London. The Earl of Essex left Worcester on 19 October, searching for the King. Such was their inexperience that neither side knew where the other was until 22 October. At Edgecote near Banbury, the King learned that Essex's army was only seven miles away, at Kineton. The Royalist army had interposed itself between the Parliamentarians and London, but Prince Rupert advised against continuing the advance on the capital with Essex's army so close in their rear. The following day the Royalists drew up on the high ridge of Edgehill a few miles south-east of Kineton and awaited Essex's approach. Numerically, the two armies were evenly matched with around 14,000 men each, but the Royalists were stronger in cavalry. Two regiments under the command of John Hampden, along with most of the Parliamentarian artillery, were still a day's march behind Essex's main force.
The Royalists were confident of an easy victory. Immediately before the battle, however, the Earl of Lindsey resigned as Captain-General following a disagreement over the deployment of troops. Patrick Ruthven, the Earl of Forth was appointed to take his place. Lindsey fought at the head of his own regiment of foot and was mortally wounded during the battle.
Initially the Royalists deployed in an unassailable position on the brow of Edgehill, but Essex made no attempt to attack up the steep slopes. At about one o'clock in the afternoon of 23 October, the Royalists advanced down the hill and drew up on the plain below. The two armies were conventionally deployed, with infantry in the centre flanked by cavalry on both wings. After a short exchange of artillery fire, Prince Rupert led a cavalry charge against the Parliamentarian left wing, sweeping round to attack the flank. Rupert was aware that there was treachery within the Parliamentarian ranks. The inappropriately-named Sir Faithful Fortescue had agreed to go over to the Royalists on the day of battle. As Rupert approached, Fortescue's troop wheeled round and joined the attack on the Parliamentarians. The remaining Parliamentarian cavalry on the left wing turned and fled, causing several nearby foot regiment to flee as well. On the other side of the field, Commissary-General Wilmot's cavalry shattered Parliament's right wing. Both Rupert and Wilmot rode off in an uncontrolled pursuit of the fleeing Parliamentarian horse. They were joined against orders by Sir John Byron's regiment of horse. This left the Royalists with no cavalry in the field, while the Parliamentarian cavalry regiments of Sir Philip Stapleton and Sir William Balfour remained unscathed.
Meanwhile, the five brigades of Royalist foot under the overall command of Sir Jacob Astley advanced in the centre. In a desperate hand-to-hand struggle, during which the Earl of Essex fought alongside his men with a pike in his hands, the Parliamentarians stood their ground. The horse regiments of Balfour and Stapleton harassed the Royalist foot and succeeded in silencing their field guns. The King's standard bearer, Sir Edmund Verney, was killed and the standard temporarily captured; it was gallantly recaptured by Captain John Smith of Lord Grandison's regiment. The Royalists were gradually driven back until the return of Prince Rupert with most of the cavalry stabilised the line. However, the troopers were too tired to engage the enemy again. With the light beginning to fade, the two exhausted armies drew apart.
While neither side had gained a clear victory, the Earl of Essex's subsequent withdrawal to Warwick left the road to London open for the Royalists to continue their advance on the capital.
Brentford & Turnham Green, Middlesex, 12-13 November 1642
After the battle of Edgehill, Prince Rupert advised an immediate cavalry strike against London before the Earl of Essex's army could return. The King, however, decided upon a more cautious advance with the whole Royalist army. This allowed the Earl of Essex time to return unopposed and to organise the City's defences, reinforcing his army with the 8,000-strong London Trained Bands.
The King advanced on the capital via Banbury, Oxford, and Reading, negotiating with Parliament as he went and reluctant to alienate his subjects with an all-out assault. By 10 November, the King's army had reached the outskirts of London. On 12 November, Prince Rupert launched a surprise attack on Parliament's outpost at Brentford under cover of an early morning mist. The regiments of Denzil Holles and Lord Brooke were overwhelmed and Rupert's cavaliers sacked Brentford, capturing 500 prisoners, 15 guns and 11 colours. However, the ferocity of the attack alarmed the citizens of London and stiffened their resolve to resist the cavaliers. By the time the King arrived with the main Royalist army, Essex had amassed a force of more than 24,000 men to bar his way at Turnham Green. Another 3,000 troops under Sir James Ramsay were at Kingston to defend the first crossing of the River Thames above London Bridge. In the face of such opposition, and with his army weakened by cold and hunger, Charles decided to withdraw to Reading and then to Oxford, which remained Royalist headquarters for the duration of the war.
After the King's withdrawal to Oxford, both sides sent their main armies into winter quarters. The Earl of Essex deployed forces to guard the western approaches to London with a forward base at Windsor. Reading was fortified for the King with strong garrisons at Wallingford and Abingdon to secure communications with Oxford. Additional Royalist garrisons were set up at Banbury, Brill, Faringdon and Burford to form a defensive circle. Oxford itself was occupied by four regiments of foot, and work began on a new circuit of earthworks and fortifications to replace the ruinous medieval walls.
During December 1642, Henry Wilmot led a force of dragoons from Oxford in a daring raid to capture the town of Marlborough in Wiltshire, thus opening a line of communications with Royalists in the south-west. On the Parliamentarian side, Sir William Waller remained active in securing the western approaches to London, capturing Farnham, Winchester and Chichester and justifying his reputation in London as "William the Conqueror".
References:
A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War, a military history, 1959
S.R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War vol. i, 1888
William Seymour, Battles in Britain 1066-1746, 1997
Austin Woolrych, Battles of the English Civil War, 1961
Links:
"Battel of Worcester" — a Royalist ballad about Powick Bridge
Powick Bridge : Edgehill : Brentford : UK Battlefields Resource Centre